William Smith O'Brien

William Smith O'Brien (17 October 1803-18 June 1864) was the Conservative Party MP for Ennis from 1828 to 1831 (succeeding Thomas Frankland Lewis and preceding William Vesey-FitzGerald) and the Repeal Association MP for Limerick County from 1835 to 1849 (succeeding Standish Darby O'Grady and preceding Samuel Dickson). O'Brien - a Protestant landowner and MP - supported Catholic emancipation and came to lead the Young Ireland political movement, leading the failed 1848 Young Irelander Rebellion. From 1848 to 1854, he was deported to Australia, but he was allowed to return home in 1856 on the condition that he stay out of politics.

Biography
William Smith O'Brien was born in Dromoland, County Clare, Ireland on 17 October 1803, a descendant of King Brian Boru. He received an upper-class English education and became a lawyer, and he served as the Conservative Party MP for ennis from 1828 to 1831 and for Limerick from 1835 to 1849. Although he was a Protestant country-gentleman who supported Ireland's union with the United Kingdom, he was a supporter of Catholic emancipation and, following Daniel O'Connell's imprisonment in 1843, he defected to the Repeal Association. In January 1847, he and Thomas Francis Meagher co-founded the Young Ireland political movement, and, in March 1848, O'Brien called for the formation of a National Guard and tried to incite a national rebellion. This first attempt failed, but, on 29 July 1848, he led landlords and tenants in a rebellion spanning three counties. The rebellion was crushed after a near-bloodless battle at Ballingarry, County Tipperary, and O'Brien and the other rebel leaders were sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted to deportation to Tasmania, and, in 1854, he was released on the condition that he never return to the United Kingdom. He settled in Brussels, Belgium, and, in 1856, he was granted an unconditional pardon and allowed to return home. In 1864, a sickly O'Brien visited England and Wales with the goal of rallying his health, but he died at Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales at the age of 60.